A COOL BUD

Baseball’s spring training is underway and the sport is under the auspices of a new commissioner. As teams get in shape and reshape their rosters for the rigors ahead, baseball itself moves in a new direction under Rob Manfred, the longtime labor lawyer who replaces the retired Bud Selig as commissioner.

Selig, 80, was named interim commissioner in 1992. He held that odd title until 1998, when he accepted the job on a full-time basis. The Milwaukee native and the former owner and operator of the Milwaukee Brewers shifted the commissioner’s office (unofficially) to his hometown, where he often simply walked at lunch time to a nearby hot dog cart. He didn’t have much use for the trappings of power.

If Manfred can keep Selig’s achievements from unraveling, he’ll be deemed a success. Selig presided over a stunning era of prosperity and growth, despite the stink and stain of the steroids era.

While Selig ran the show, 21 new ballparks opened and four teams were added to Major League Baseball. Interleague play began (yes, some people hate it) and the playoffs were expanded (yes, some people hate it). MLB expanded revenue sharing and the value of local TV contracts simply exploded.

Manfred must find a way to make the game more appealing to young fans. Baseball skews older, and every survey shows it. It also skews long and late. Who has not cursed fate on a Sunday night when the Boston Red Sox and New York Yankees engage in one of their four-hour wars of attrition? Manfred must speed up play and make the game attractive to millennials.

He will have his successes and his problems. But his predecessor left him an operation running smoothly and printing money around the clock.
 
 
Post By: Larry Weisman, a longtime sportswriter for USA TODAY, blogs for Twistity.com. Follow him on Twitter @MrLarryWeisman .